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We can't unequivocally say it's not racial profiling. All we know from the article is that ethnicity is being used as a factor. If a person's race/ethnicity can
by jarrett 15y ago
We can't unequivocally say it's not racial profiling. All we know from the article is that ethnicity is being used as a factor. If a person's race/ethnicity can in any way make it more likely for the system to flag that person, then racial profiling is arguably happening.
So the question is: Under this system, can a person's race increase the likelihood of a positive result? It seems the answer is yes. If race is a factor, that means it's somehow being used as in input into the algorithm that determines a person's suspicion score. Maybe it's not something as heavy handed as "boost the suspicion score if the person is of race X." Suppose it's "weigh eye movement more heavily than breathing if the person is of race X." Even then, the effect is to increase the likelihood of a positive result _for some people_ based on their race.
- dkokelley 15y agoI missed the explicit part about ethnicity. Rereading that makes me think that those factors are used as a baseline along with age, height, and weight to determine the normal 'indicative' factors like pupil dilation and heart rate, and then flag people who are abnormal given their ethnic, age, height, and weight group norms. It seems that either the phrase in question was poorly worded, or the DHS is in for a serious media storm.